The great heart of the child Mary is, after the Heart of Jesus, the holiest of all hearts; it has loved, and it loves God more than the whole court of heaven, more than all the angels and saints, past, present, and to come. Desire, then, to love God like the heart of this sublime child, and to this end place yourself in this beautiful heart, and love God through it, with the intention of practising all the virtues of which it has given us the example.
How can we form an adequate idea of Mary's triumph on the occasion of her glorious Assumption?
The riches of this great Queen are immense; she is an ocean of perfection, the depth of which can be fathomed only by Him Who has enriched it with so many graces.
The wonderful wound of love which she received at the instant of her Immaculate Conception went on ever enlarging, during life, until finally it penetrated her so profoundly that it detached her most holy soul from her body. Thus it was a death of love, sweeter than life itself, which ended the boundless sorrow that she suffered in the course of her earthly pilgrimage, not only during the Passion of Christ, but also in witnessing the offences and ingratitude of men towards the divine Majesty. Let us, then, rejoice in God, over the signal triumph of Mary, our Queen and Mother; let us rejoice in seeing her raised above the choirs of angels and placed at the right hand of her divine Son. You may extol the glories of Mary in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and even love her with this divine Heart; and, if Jesus permit you, take flight into the Immaculate Heart of Mary, rejoice with her, congratulate her that her sufferings are at an end, ask grace to live always immersed in that immense ocean of divine love whence springs that other ocean of the sufferings of Jesus and the dolors of Mary. Let us be pierced through by those sufferings and these dolors; and let the sword be well tempered, that the wound of love may be the deeper; for the deeper it is, the sooner will the captive soul escape from her prison. I am in an abyss of darkness, and I know not how to speak of these marvels. He who would be the most pleasing to Mary must humble himself the most, for Mary was the humblest of creatures, and for that reason she pleased God more than all others.
Meditate frequently on the sorrows of the Mother of God - sorrows inseparable from those of her beloved Son. If you go to the crucifix, you will there find the Mother, and, on the other hand, wherever the Mother is, there, also, is the Son.
Unite the sufferings of Jesus with those of the holy Virgin, and, bowing yourself beneath their weight, make of yourself a holocaust of love and sorrow. Divine love will teach you how, if you keep yourself concentrated in your nothingness.
Today we commemorate the dolors of Mary; recommend me fervently to her, that her dolors and the Passion of my Jesus may be ever graven on my heart. I wish it with all the ardor of my soul. Would that I could impress them on the hearts of all men; then the whole world would be inflamed with divine love.
My heart breaks when I think of the sorrows of the most holy Virgin.
O tender Mother, unutterable was thy grief in finding thyself deprived of thy dear Son, and then in beholding Him dead in thy arms!
Ah! who can realize the sadness of Mary when she returned to Bethany after the burial of her Son?
Jesus expires on the cross! He is dead that we may have life. All creation mourns: the sun darkens, the earth trembles, the rocks burst, and the veil of the temple is rent in twain; my heart alone remains harder than a rock!
All I say to you now is, console the poor Mother of Jesus. It is a miracle that she does not die; she is absorbed in the sufferings of Jesus. Imitate her, and ask Magdalen and the beloved disciple Saint John what are their sentiments.
I dwell in spirit at the foot of the cross.
The sorrow of Mary is like the Mediterranean Sea, for it is written, "Your sorrow is great as the sea." From that sea we pass to a second sea, which has no limits; it is the Passion of Our Lord, of which the Royal Prophet said, "I am entered on the high sea." There the soul enriches herself in fishing for the priceless pearls of virtue.
O immaculate Virgin, Queen of martyrs! I conjure thee, by the sorrows that thou didst endure during the awful Passion of thy amiable Jesus, give to all of us thy maternal blessing.
I place all my spiritual children under the mantle of thy protection.
- text taken from Flowers of the Passion, taken from the letters of Saint Paul of the Cross